Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

Students at Arrowhead often know what clubs, sports, and activities they are going to join before they even start their freshman year. Many skills and hobbies are picked up during childhood, so by the time we reach high school we have already acquired a skillset that allows for certain sports and activities.

Emily Landry, an Arrowhead senior, says she has been involved in tennis, piano, singing, honors choirs, the 4-H program at the Waukesha County Fair, and knitting for as long as she can remember.

However, Landry says these activities weren’t enough for her anymore, so she decided to pick up something new: karate.

She says she started karate over spring break at Okinawan Karate DO & Kobudo in Sussex.

“My dad wanted me to take a self defense class before I go to college, and I’ve always wanted to try karate,” Landry says.

Landry and her brother, Lucas, an Arrowhead sophomore, are in a class of about 10-12 students between the ages of 14 and 40 ranging from white to black belt.

She says the order of karate belts by skill level are white, yellow, gold, orange, green, blue, purple, brown, red, and black.

“It was really intimidating because the other students are really good, and Lucas and I are just white belts, which is the lowest skill level. Also, all of the other activities I’m in are things I’ve been doing for a very long time, so I’ve gotten pretty good at them. It was scary to start something that I had no previous knowledge about,” she says.

Landry says she has become friends with a lot of the other students in the class, one being a black belt who shows Landry and her brother his skills while helping them improve their own.

Landry says she has one main goal that she is hoping to accomplish by taking this karate course.
“I want to kick butt,” she says.

She says her instructor is Sensei Bryan who obtained his black belt as a child.

“My favorite thing about the class is how helpful the other people are. The first day we started the class Lucas and I stood in the back and were afraid to stand out, but a lot of the students introduced themselves to us and made us feel more comfortable,” Landry says.

She says she is glad she started a new activity even though she is just a beginner because it gives her a new goal to work towards and helpful knowledge for college.

“My favorite thing I’ve learned so far is what to do if an attacker attempts to stab me. There have been so many stories on the news recently about attacks on college campuses, and I just want to know that if I’m ever put in a situation like that, I’ll know how to handle it and protect myself and others,” she says.

Landry says she recommends trying something new to other fellow seniors whose because it will give them something to do, especially if their sports’ seasons have ended.

She says karate is now one of her favorite things to do, and she looks forward to practice every day.

“It makes me feel like James Bond,” Landry says.